Atelier class to bring Exodus to the stage

"It is the story of the first civil disobedience in history — and women did it, across class lines, race lines, age lines. How did they do it? What is the real story?" That is how Susanna Tubert and Alicia Ostriker introduced their atelier, HUM/THR 499: "Exodus: The Women's Version, A Staged Reading."

The atelier will explore the first two chapters of the Biblical book Exodus, which tells the story of Moses' survival as a baby. According to the story, the Egyptian Pharaoh feared a revolt by the Hebrew slave class, so he mandated the execution of all newborn Hebrew males. Baby Moses was saved by disobedient midwives and was adopted by the Pharaoh's unsuspecting daughter.

The goal of the atelier is to understand the emotional complications of the story that the Bible doesn't explain. This is where the atelier's creative spark enters the scene. The students participating in this course are writing dramatic dialogue from the perspective of different characters in the story. They are, however, writing these in their own voices rather than the "King James Bible" style. At the end of the atelier, Ostriker and Tubert will select pieces to fashion a final performance.

The Princeton atelier program, organized by Toni Morrison, allows professional artists like Ostriker and Tubert to spend a semester working with Princeton students. Morrison approached Ostriker about leading a course, and Ostriker saw the opportunity to combine two of her passions — creative writing and Biblical interpretation. Tubert, who has worked with the atelier program before, will aid the project in coming to the stage through her theatrical expertise.

Tubert is a director in New York City, but she was born and raised in Argentina. There, she had a childhood full of dance and piano. "I grew up expressing myself through music and movement," she said. When she came to America to attend Bennington in Vermont, she began to act. Her most recent production is the musical "Barrio Babies."

Last year alone, she directed "Santa Concepcion" at New York's Public Theatre and "The Knee Desires the Dirt" at the Women's Project. She also put together the Hispanic Heritage Awards at the Kennedy Center. She has worked with the best: Harold Prince ("Kiss of the Spider Woman"), Marshall Mason ("Redwood Curtain") and Peter Sellars ("Saint Francois"). Now, she is working with Princeton students.

Alicia Ostriker is a professor at Rutgers and a renowned local poet. She has authored nine volumes of poetry. Her scholarly work is prodigious as well, and includes titles pertinent to the atelier, such as "The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions" and "Feminist Revision and the Bible."

"I've been obsessed with the Bible since the mid 80s," says Ostriker, who also teaches a graduate course called "The Bible and Feminist Imagination." She is the winner of the prestigious William Carlos Williams Award and has been a finalist for the National Book Award twice. The courses she most enjoys teaching are cross-disciplinary, and the atelier is an opportunity to lead such a class.

The course meets at the Third World Center for three hours on Monday afternoons. Each week, the class focuses on one character or set of characters from the Exodus story, such as the slaves, the masters, the midwives or Moses' family. After discussing the characters, roles are assigned, and students act out various imagined scenarios. After this active brainstorming, the dialogue writing begins. Ostriker and Tubert keep the writing periods extremely short, from one to 15 minutes, in order to promote a free flow of ideas.

Following Spring Break, Ostriker and Tubert began shaping a production from the collection of dialogues. Following this step, the class will start rehearsing for the performance. At present, Ostriker and Tubert envision a "staged reading," but it has yet to take final form. ateliers have the unique freedom to evolve as the students and artists progress. "The expectation is that students will create their own spins," Ostriker said.

The form of an atelier fits the Exodus story. The freedom to evolve is important for a performance based on the Bible, a work for which interpretation is crucial. "There is no 'correct' interpretation," Ostriker said. "The point of this kind of work . . . is that the story is open to multiple interpretations, and individuals take it in the directions that are most meaningful to them."

That is why Ostriker and Tubert chose a wide range of students to be in the atelier. Through a process of application and interview, the two found students from a variety of classes, majors and backgrounds. Ali Silva '02 is a sophomore and Paula Goldman is a graduate student at the Woodrow Wilson School. Victoria Collis '03 is from Trinidad, and Candace Jackson '00 studied in South Africa.

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Even though the course title is "Exodus: A Woman's Story," there is one male student, Adam Ruben '01. His male perspective is valuable, as is his voice when reading dialogues that involve the Pharaoh. "Usually it doesn't make a difference," he said. "But sometimes we'll be doing an acting exercise or something and Susanna will say, 'Okay, pretend you're pregnant; think about how that must feel' — things like that are completely lost on me."

Not much is lost on this atelier, though. How many courses devote 12 weeks to just two chapters of their text? The performance will be "Exodus: A Woman's Story," but the fruit of this course will be as tempting as Genesis' apple.